Important stuff

A Word to the Wise

Here at the kids belts factory, we have a love/hate relationship with Amazon. We have some amazing retailers who sell on Amazon and we love them to death, but there are always one or two who spoil the pot.

We are very protective of our brand and our image. “Why?” you ask? Well, partly because this business and this piece of elastic with snaps is my baby. I feel like I literally birthed it with the amount of blood, sweat and tears that has gone into it! And, partly because that’s just good business. Imagine what Disney or Coca Cola would be today if they didn’t protect their brand and the value of their product. I know we are a young company and nowhere near as big as those companies (one day… you just wait), but if we don’t protect it now, it will only get harder. That’s where Amazon is making it difficult, and not just for us.

Like I said, we love the great majority of our Amazon retailers, but lately there has been one specifically (and I won’t mention names) that has blatantly been violating our pricing policies. We have been in contact with them through Amazon and they refuse to comply. I know that’s not Amazon’s fault, but here is where they come in… Amazon sellers are completely anonymous. Amazon won’t even talk about their 3rd party sellers. That makes it difficult for wholesalers and distributors like us to track down who is actually selling our product. We aren’t the only one. Once we started having this problem, we googled the issue (cause that’s what you do when you have a problem, right, google it?) and there are huge companies having the same problem. So much so, that they even dedicate a whole page on their website listing the companies who are not authorized sellers and warning that their warranties are voided if their product was purchased from any of those retailers.

The problem is, when you sell a product for under the minimum advertised price, you cheapen the brand and make it harder for smaller stores to sell the product because they have to make a certain amount on the sale to justify keeping in inventory. Keep that in mind when you purchase any product. The cheapest price might seem like a deal, but it might also be forcing someone else to close their doors or not carry a product because they can not compete.